Chosen
by ezrastypewriter
Summary: AU: Aria and Ezra are best friends in High School and are secretly in love with each other. Twist is the two are deeply in a relationship with another person, Aria's other half being Noel and Ezra's other half being Jackie. Will these two ever confess or will their love just be passed off as a silly infatuation?
1. Chapter 1

**AU: Aria and Ezra are best friends in High School and are secretly in love with each other. Twist is the two are deeply in a relationship with another person, Aria's other half being Noel and Ezra's other half being Jackie. Will these two ever confess or will their love just be passed off as a silly infatuation? **

*Have fun reading and I hope you like it, hopefully I'll get some good reviews? Or else I'll be super sad. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This characters are not mine, and this is more along the lines of 7th grade and Aria and Ezra are around 6 months apart.

Chapter 1:

It was a cloudy day in Rosewood High, the parking lot was filled with incoming freshman. Some were tall, or short, or stout. Ones who wanted to be varsity swimmers, some wanted to be the Queen Bee, some wanted to get into Harvard. But Aria Montgomery was different, Aria wanted to be herself. From the beginning of her school career Aria has been jumping around personalities, she tried being the perfect Rosewood girl, the girl with an art smock and braids, and most recently the goth girl with a pink streak in her hair. All she wanted to do was fit in, most people knew her as the short hazel eyed goth girl, but things changed through the summer.

"Hunny, are you feeling nervous?" Ella, her mother, yelled over the loud engine of their car. It was nearly breaking down and the Montgomeries were seriously considering getting a new one.

"Umm…" Aria laughed a little nervously, fiddling her thumbs together, "You could say so…I mean I'm wearing a bright blue metallic skirt with a black and red shirt blouse tucked into it. This is the most color I've worn in…a YEAR."

"Well, we're here." Ella leaned in and pecked her softly on her forehead. Usually her parents aren't the affectionate kind, so that was a big gesture as to how big of a deal Aria's first day was.

Aria smiled and grabbed her bag. She nervously opened the door and got out, slamming the door behind her softly. Giving a slight huff, she scanned the front of the school for familiar faces. _Hanna…Spencer…Emily…Mona…_the four seemed almost foreign to her, so she just omitted their presence. Ever since Alison went missing, she really didn't want to think about her old gal pals. Rosewood didn't just mean high school to her; it meant a new story she has to write. And this one was going to be her best seller.

Just as she opened the door to her school she heard a yell of pain from behind the door. First day of school and Aria just absentmindedly slammed a male in the face. Her face made a cringe as she looked behind the door.

"OH MY GOSH I AM SO SORRY." Aria cupped her mouth with one hand and offered to help the male with the other.

"Hey hey, no that's….ow…that's okay." The brunette male groaned to Aria, trying to hide his pain.

His firm, big palm wrapped around Aria's as he pulled himself up. Then he dusted himself off as Aria still cupped herself in pain, cursing to herself.

"I'm so sorry I didn't even know you were behind me and…" Aria was rambling off before she knew it. Guilt had a tendency to get her rambling off like that.

"No, no I'm sorry I wasn't looking….clearly." He waved his book, then extended his free hand to Aria. " 'm Ezra. Ezra…Fitzgerald."

"Aria." She extended her hand out to Ezra. "Aria Montgomery. Sorry but is that…the Great Gatsby you're reading?" She pointed to the book in Ezra's hand. Even though Aria was the kind of person who looked like she never picked up a book and was always listening to scary rock bands, Aria really found a way to lose herself through books. She was rarely one to connect to people, let it be TV shows or music, she never shared interests with anyone and when she did, she'd run from it. Independency is key when it comes to Aria.

"Yeah…it is. " Ezra gave her a quick grin and Aria noticed that he had a very bookish smile. Before she knew it she was walking with him to first period, listening to him rant off about how wonderful Daisy's fantasies are and what not. "Anyway, sorry, I'm just rambling on now. So are you new to Rosewood? I've been here for a while and surprisingly I have not seen anyone who takes interest in books I carry around."

Aria smirked and replied, "Oh! Is that so? Well, I've been living here since I was 5. I actually went to Iceland for a little. But now, I'm back." The hazel eyed beauty walked into the noisy first period.

"Mmmm, I see." Ezra laughed and threw his head back in amusement. "I think some kid named Noel was actually looking for you this morning?"

Aria smiled politely, and then snapped to her senses, "NOEL?" She asked while making her eyes big, "As in NOEL KAHN?"

Aria had a super big time crush on Noel Kahn. Noel Kahn was that one party boy that every girl had puppy eyes for. When she became a part of Ali's clique she finally discovered that Noel Kahn, a. ACTUALLY knew who she was and b. that she could become his girlfriend in a split second because of how well they hit it off. But Aria decided to keep quiet about everything UNLESS Noel made the movie. But the last time Noel even waved to her was before school ended, so her hopes were really low.

"Hey ARIA!" Her heart skipped a beat when she heard that familiar dreamy voice echo from behind her, "Can…ya come here for a minute?"

Ezra made a nudging gesture at her, already sensing that she was head over heels for him. And not before long Aria was scuffing her boots against the tile floor of the classroom in front of Noel.

"So…Aria. Um, I was gonna ask you if, you'd want to you know be my girl?" Noel asked, grinning in his flirtatious way of his.

Aria looked up in shock, "Of course!" She expected the moment to come eventually, but not so suddenly. Noel and her haven't even spoken lately, so the proposal took her by surprise. "Of course…" She smiled and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.

The first period teacher came rushing in, sweaty and matted hair and Aria returned to her seat next to Ezra.

"So…" Ezra puffed out a soft sigh, "How'd it go with Noel…"

"Oh gosh, " Aria whispered in excitement, "IT WAS AMAZING, he asked me out and wait…."

"Are you going to ask how I figured it out?" Ezra laughed and looked at his desk. "It was obvious. Rest assured I've read enough books to figure out the difference between a friendly girl and a love struck one."


	2. Chapter 2

Ezra looked back at the teacher scribbling down some information on the board and felt Aria's glance at him. _All you know about romance, you've learned from books and Jackie. _Ezra smiled to himself trying to hide his flustered feelings.

"So…" Ezra leaned back onto his chair and looked at Aria, who was jotting down some notes. _Play it cool, Z, you're still with Jackie Molina, remember? The tall, popular one who's been steadily bringing his reputation up from nerd-boy, yeah you kinda love her. _Ezra was trying to view Aria as just a friend but from the minute he saw her he felt something different. "I should probably tell you more about me now huh?" Ezra grinned at her with his straight pearly teeth.

Aria replied with a subtle, "Well, it wouldn't be fair if you knew more about me now would it? They always say that the first friend you meet will be a new best friend, you see?" She squinted her eyes at him, and giggled a little dorky laugh.

"Well…I have a girlfriend." Ezra blurt out, a little pompous and unlike himself. Aria nudged his shoulder and grinned mischievously.

"I didn't expect you NOT to have one…really, for a guy like yourself." Aria said, clearly unaffected by his confession. _Shit wow Ezra you reallllllyyy screwed up, what were you trying to do? Get a taken girl you JUST met jealous?_ Ezra thought to himself, smacking his forehead lightly.

The loud ringing of the first period bell interrupted Ezra's boisterous thoughts. Aria was already out the door with Noel Kahn when Ezra began to slowly slip his binder into his backpack. Then he heard a sharp AHEM from someone around him.

"Z?" A tall, skinny figure was leaning against the doorframe of his first period.

"Jackie!" Ezra's face lit up at the sight of his girlfriend, "How's it going?" Ezra threw his corduroy fabric backpack over his shoulder and jogged to catch up to Jackie, who was now out the door. She seemed as if she was clearly upset about something, her eyes were puffy and red and her breathing was slow and hesitant. "Hey…are you mad at me for something? Sorry, you know I'm not really good with this stuff."

"Sure…" Jackie shot out coldly, "You could ignore me for the whole entire summer and just live inside your stupid books, but you wouldn't even know why I was mad at you." Jackie flipped over the cover of the book he was holding open with his thumb,

"Jackie…" Ezra said, wrapping an arm around her skinny waist. "I was busy."

"BUSY?" Jackie laughed, throwing her hands in the air, "BUSY. Busy, what? Busy canoodling with over there?" She pointed a finger at Aria. "Don't think I didn't see you."

Ezra cringed a little, but grabbed Jackie's wrist before she strode away. "Jackie…JACKIE! Listen to me! I met her, and she was the only one in my 1st period that I knew. You know there are negative to you being a year older too right?" Ezra raised his eyebrows and pulled her closer to him, with one arm wrapped around her small waist. Sealing his lips against hers, he closed his eyes tightly. Usually he'd feel some spark when he was around Jackie, when they touched and when she'd speak to him. But now, she seemed more of a temporary fix of a broken thing. Jackie made him happy, unspeakably happy. They shared many memories together, since they were really childhood friends as well as lovers. The couple's PDA created a crowd around them, and Ezra was a claustrophobic so he broke away and made the excuse of them being late the second period.

"Second period doesn't start for another 3 minutes." Jackie said while glancing at her clock.

Ezra never told Jackie about his claustrophobia because that meant that he could never go to crowded high school parties with her and he didn't want to hold her back from being the sociable person she was. So he laughed and grabbed her arm, "Come on, you know how punctual I tend to be." Ezra huffed out a sigh of relief once he felt Jackie follow him and give out a little laugh. "That's the Jackie I want to see." He said, looking back at her.

Ezra caught a quick glimpse of Aria before entering into 2nd period Math. Aria was cuddling with Noel on the school benches. She looked so happy with Noel, much happier than she was today sitting next to him during Chemistry. Then Ezra began to think of her wavy hair which fell onto her dainty shoulders, her dark hair accentuated her hazel-green eyes, the way she talked was filled with sophistication. Once he noticed that he was think about Aria again for the 4th time or something, Ezra slapped his arm so hard that he felt a bruise coming on.

2nd period Math was filled with the occasional hand squeezes by Ezra or Jackie, and their bodies were pressed tightly against each other all period. Eventually the bell rang, and Jackie walked off when she saw a friend wave to her. Then Ezra was left all alone in the abandoned classroom, because he's a slow packer.

Ezra smirked and looked around the classroom and back at his book, "Guess it's just me and you ol' friend."

Then he felt a surge up his spine when he heard a familiar voice, "Oh don't worry ol' bud," It was Aria. She walked upto him and planted a slight slap on his back, "I'm here with you."

"For a person you just met, you definitely are hospitable to me." Ezra grinned and looked at Aria, "But I think this'll be a good friendship down the road."

Ezra was cursing at himself for saying that when he noticed that Aria turned a little red, "Oh, is that so?" She furrowed her eyebrows, "Well, I DID slam you with the door in the morning. I can kind of never forgive myself for doing that. So I'll just repay you by being around you all the time, plus I kinda need a fresh start."

"Fresh start?" Ezra was lost. Aria seemed like she knew everyone around and people definitely loved Aria's unique personality. "Why on the Earth would someone like you need a fresh start? Sorry, um, that came off really rudely. But you're like super awesome and kind." Ezra followed behind Aria who was speed walking to her 3rd period.

"Hmm, maybe it's a story for later." Aria let out a brief sigh, "What's your 3rd period?"

Ezra respected her decision and hoped that she would tell her what that story was. He looked down at his schedule and said, "Honors English Lit."

Aria cheered and grabbed her backpack straps, "Mine too. What are the odds that the two biggest booklovers in the school have English together?"

Ezra laughed, "Huh…well I guess the odds aren't that high?"

Aria's jaw dropped in mock surprise and she bumped shoulders with him, and Ezra let out a genuine laugh and bumped her back.

Ezra smiled and thought, _HMMM what ARE the odds that you of all people would slam me with the door today? Oh geez this'll be a long year. _


	3. Chapter 3

Aria was fixing her hair with her date with Noel Kahn. Kahn whispered a proposal to go to the movies at 7:00 today, and knowing that being his girlfriend-full time- meant that there was things she needed to do to as in ditch all of her homework to satisfy her boyfriend's hunger.

"Aria…" Ella called out from the kitchen, " …" she said with a teasing tone in her voice, "is here for someone called Miss Montgomery."

Aria felt her skin tingle when she heard his laugh downstairs and she put in her earrings as quickly as possible, checking her reflection in the mirror once again. She then glided her hand against the wall as she majestically went down the stairs. She smiled at Noel as his once straight face melted into a bright grin, white perfect pearls blinding her with their shine. He put forward his arm for her to link her arm, and Aria wrapped her arm around his own.

"Thank you Mrs. Montgomery." Noel let out a charming grin, and Ella smiled, giving a thumbs-up to Aria when Noel turned around.

As they began to walk out of the kitchen and into the stranded living room, Aria excused herself and grabbed a red coat. _Ezra wore red yesterday…_she thought to herself. _Wait why do I know that? I have no clue. _She let the coat hang on her arm, and wrapped her free arm around Noel's broad waist. Then she felt an uncalled for hand on her _tushy_, and she looked up at a wide grinning Noel.

"Noel…" Aria said as she threw the door opened, and shut it behind the two. She grabbed his palm and lifted it off of her. "It's out first date and all…"

Noel scoffed and smiled, "Come on Aria, it's not like we wouldn't get to that stage eventually." Noel opened his car door for Aria to slide into and he climbed in from the other side. Then he pulled Aria's face closer into his and Aria's eyes widened with shock.

"NOEL!" Aria shouted, with a fierce look and tone. "I will NOT be subject to your needs."

Noel leaned back and frowned, "Oh, Aria. If only you were like anyone else." Aria cringed and that statement and pressed her back into the leather seats of Noel's car. She felt nauseated as the car engine roared and Noel took off at a whopping 80 miles per hour.

"Aria." Noel smiled and looked at her, "If you are even planning to tell someone about how I act around you, nobody's going to listen. Just saying, it's hard to tell everyone something bad about Noel Kahn, the town's it-boy." He waggled his eyebrows at her and applied the brakes.

Aria smirked before realizing that what he said had some truth behind it. Nobody was going to believe her. "It's okay, as long as you don't touch a certain few areas. I'm perfectly fine with being your girlfriend." She said, hesitantly. "

Noel laughed and placed a palm on her thigh, "I'll try to respect that, Montgomery." He turned off the car engine and opened the car for Aria. Aria scanned the beautiful vintage theater that Noel had brought her to and a smile widened on her face. Noel entwined fingers with hers, and they had walked up to the ticket booth.

Aria was examining her heels when she absentmindedly bumped into a male. "Oh gosh I'm so sorry I wa-Ezra?"

Aria was secretly really glad to see Ezra, and she was about to tell him before she saw Jackie. "I'm sorry Ezra; I didn't mean to bump into you…again." She looked behind Ezra and acted like she JUST saw Jackie. "Jackie! Isn't it Jackie? Hi! I'm Aria!" Aria grinned cheekily at Ezra and Jackie. _Gosh, he must be such a nice guy, treating Jackie like his Daisy. _"You should come sit with us! Aren't you going to…" Aria looked at her ticket to reconfirm the movie title, "The Great Gatsby?" _How ironic. The Great Gatsby, the book he was reading today. _

"Yeah, we are, and yeah we'd love to!" Jackie answered for Ezra, eyeing Aria's hunky beau instead of looking at her. Aria squinted at Jackie once she noticed that Jackie was clearly looking Noel up and down. "Well! Let's go in, where it's dark…and you can't see anything but the movie screen." She said sharply to Jackie.

Aria, Noel, Jackie, and Ezra slowly made their way to the movie theater and sat down.

They sat in the order of Aria, Noel, Ezra, and Jackie. Noel started playing with Aria's sleeves five minutes into the movie, fiddling with her bra strap after a little. Then Noel began feeling Aria's chest within another five minutes and Aria was just praying that Ezra would save her from this miserable situation. Then Aria decided to get up and get herself a drink or popcorn, or both. It was Noel paying for it, not her. She might as well buy the whole store. Aria decided to be the most lustful and obnoxious person ever, and buy them all large drinks and popcorn. She came back into the dark theater and began passing out the drinks. Noel grabbed her chest instead of the popcorn, and smirked out an apology. Then Jackie smiled flakily at her. Leaving Ezra to be the one to save her from Noel's harassment.

"So um thanks for everything." Ezra laughed goofily and looked up into Aria's dim lit face.

"I need you to help me. NOW." Aria looked into his eyes, trying to convey a sense of urgency through her expression.

"Okay, okay what do you need?" Ezra whispered softly, trying to avoid Jackie from listening to them talk.

"Spill this all over me and my seat as you walk by." Aria said, resulting in a confused look from Ezra.

"Okay…" Ezra said softly, still lost.

Aria then returned to her seat. Then she entwined her fingers into Noel's in attempts to make the upcoming scenario real as possible. She caught Ezra's hand shaking as he was walking down the aisle, then before she knew it she was drenched in Pepsi and her seat was literally like her after a water ride.

"I'm so sorry." Ezra said, cupping his mouth with his free hand.

"What the hell man!" Noel got up and pushed Ezra, who was clearly too feeble to stand when pushed.

Aria wiped the soda off of her, well somewhat, and then sat Noel back down. "Will you sit in my seat?" She asked Noel innocently, and then Jackie decided to move down a seat because both Noel and Aria's seats were dripping.

"I guess, for you I will." Noel said and sat in the wet seat, stupidly enough. Aria laughed at him in her head._ You could've just taken a seat in the front, you idiot._ Ezra then stood up and offered to sit in Noel's seat since Aria was dripping wet and Noel's seat was fairly wet also. Jackie scoffed at his offer and Aria sat next to Jackie, who was clearly pouting at her.

So now the order the two couples sat in was Noel, Ezra, Aria, Jackie.

"Are you ever going to tell me your backstory?" Aria felt goose bumps as she heard Ezra whisper into her ear. "And this story while you're at it."

"Yeah, I will." Aria looked down at her sticky thighs and let out a sigh, "How about Saturday, 7 PM, we'll meet at the clandestine bookstore in Brookhaven? Safe from sound and sight…"

"Sure thing." Ezra said, and soon enough he was watching the movie without paying attention to anything or anyone around him.

Aria felt much safer next to Ezra, even though his girlfriend was sitting right next to him and seemed like she was going to bite her face off any second now. And even if Noel was a seat away, the only thing that mattered was that Ezra saved her from an hour of harassment. "Thank you by the way." Aria whispered to Ezra, who blinked about 4 times before looking back at her.

"No problem." Ezra said, bumping shoulders with her. Aria bumped him back and laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: (I feel like I should add one just in case so here.) I do not own Pretty Little Liars or any of its content so please don't kill me and you get the point. Enjoy the story! **

Chosen Part 4:

Ezra cringed while reading Dan Brown's new book Inferno, though he was truly in love with Dan Brown novels, he couldn't quite place his full attention on the story. He lay sideways on his bed with his head hanging off of the side of the mattress. Then he got up and sat with his back against the bedframe. The only thing on his mind was Aria's odd behavior at the movies the other day. He set the book down and reached for his phone, debating whether he should call her since it was 9:00 PM on a Friday. 'She's dating Noel Kahn, they're PROBABLY out on a date.' He rationalized with himself for about 30 seconds, then looked back at his lit-up screen. His hands were starting to become moist, and he felt his hands become shaky. He lifted the phone to his ear and heard his heart accelerate in his heart.

"Hey Z!" Aria's voice on the other line brought a grin to Ezra's face. "Z; I still can't get over that name."

"Come on now A, shouldn't we give ol' Z a break?" Ezra grinned and felt his heart skip at her laugh. Then his face melted to a serious look and he took a deep breath, "Could you come to the school right now? Please. I need to ask you some things, clarification really."

"It's nine fifteen are you serious?" Aria almost shouted.

Ezra felt a little uncomfortable after her reply but decided to stand his ground. "Yes I'm serious Aria. Meet me there, please. I'll bribe you with my copy of the Great Gatsby."

Aria laughed and agreed somewhat reluctantly and hung up.

Ezra scanned himself up and down in the mirror and realized that he was practically wearing the one pair of pajamas he owns and that his grey shirt was stained with cheese powder and Pepsi. He tugged off the shirt and threw it behind him, picking up another shirt as he did so. He tried it on and examined himself in the mirror. Giving his reflection in the mirror a long hard look, he picked up his Gillette deodorant and whipped it on, wondering when the last time he used it was. He tugged on a pair of jeans, and latched his belt tight. Rushing down the stairs, Ezra said a goodbye to his mother and pressed the garage opener. The garage door was barely halfway opened before Ezra slid under it, trying to gain control of his worn down bike. After nearly falling off his bike about 6 times, he was one block away from the big building. There were surprisingly an extensive amount of cars out for nine ten on a Friday night, making Ezra's bike ride even harder than it already was. The bike made a crashing sound as Ezra let go of it to fall on the ground and he made a run to the entrance of the building, his eyes looking for anything that looked petite and feminine. Then he felt a slam against his body, it was a door. The hard surface of the metal door let a surge of pain run through his arm resulting in Ezra to massage his arm groaning in pain. But he was a little relieved because he had found what he had been looking for, more like WHO he was looking for. Then Ezra decided to turn the tables even more.

"OW MY ARM!" Ezra mock scowled at Aria who was face palming in embarrassment.

"It couldn't have possibly hurt that much?" Aria tried consoling him, but it came off as an effort to persuade herself that she hadn't done that much damage.

"THAT HURT!" Ezra widened his eyes, his angry look evident in the dim light hallway.

"I'm sorry!" Aria threw her hands in the air and turned on her heels, walking toward the English classroom. "Guess nobody works late huh?"

"Lucky them, they don't get slammed by metal doors, unlike me who decided to come here." Ezra was grinning and Aria scoffed at his remark.

Ezra felt a warm chill run through his shoulder when Aria lightly bumped her shoulder against his side.

"Well they're stuck grading our papers while watching Jeopardy, texting each other about the smart candidate and the other candidate who really just shouldn't be on the show." Aria was shrugging her shoulders and then opened the door to the classroom. Aria felt for the light switch on the wall and flipped the switch upward resulting in the lights to turn on with a startling buzz. The two of them loved that room the best because it had a nice scent; their teacher was obsessed with cleanliness and candles. Ezra wrapped his arms around the chair, with one leg on each side of the plastic seat. Aria sat across from her with crossed knees and sucked in cheeks. Ezra noticed that she was clearly nervous for some odd reason and he laid a hand on top of hers. But he pulled it away after he saw the corners of Aria's mouth turn up a little. Then he looked down in shame and fell into a cloud of thoughts. _What are you thinking?! Man, she's dating Noel Kahn. I can't pelt him with books and expect to win Aria's heart. And more importantly, YOU'RE DATING JACKIE MOLINA. How many times are you going to except a nice little fantasy with Aria when you have reality with Jac- _He snapped back into reality as he was interrupted by Aria clearing her throat –more impatiently rather genuinely- and smiling at him. Ezra let out a groan before his lips parted to speak.

"Tell me your story." Ezra said, attempting to look deep into Aria's eyes.

"Don't you think it's an odd time to tell you my "story"?" Aria smirked and looked at Ezra who was clearly not going to let her leave without an explanation.

"What exactly do you want to know?" Aria's eyes narrowed at him.

_I want to know if the feelings I have toward you are mutual. I want to know if we can ever have a Daisy and Gatsby relationship. If we can have a relationship at all, Aria! _Ezra found himself wanting a lot of things but none of them were things he were allowed to want, including Aria herself. Ezra sighed and looked at her hazel eyes. Reaching out, he stroked her cheekbone with his thumb. To his surprise, Aria didn't look at him in shock but leaned in to his touch. "I want to know everything Aria. I want to know what you said you'd tell me when I first met you. I want to know about Noel and you. I want to know everything about you." Ezra said while bringing his hand back from Aria's face.

"I'll tell you what I know. But in exchange, you need to tell me who you really like. Because I know it's not Jackie. Don't give me those lies, I've heard a lot of them." Aria commanded him.

"Okay." Ezra said. "Okay, well the reason I moved to Iceland is…." Aria began the story….her story.

**A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger, I felt like using this chapter just to build the scene and what not because it'll end up setting the stage for the next Chapter, which is kind of the beginning of the rising action so yeah. I feel like I'm not getting a lot of reviews so I think I'll start doing what other authors do and update every 6 reviews I get. Thanks for reading and PLEASE review! There'll be a few minor plot twists here and there in the future chapters by the way. /I'm already writing Chapter 5 by the way. **


	5. Chapter 5

"**Okay, well the reason I moved to Iceland is…." Aria began the story….her story. **

"….my best friend had died." Aria whispered, her voice breaking at the last word. "But not just died, she had been murdered." Aria had avoided telling anyone the story. She felt like telling someone her story was the equivalent of someone splurging their darkest secret to their new best friend. She felt like this story truly defined her. Yet here she was, revealing it to her new friend, Ezra Fitz.

"Her name was Alison DiLaurentis, but most people knew her as the queen bee. Before her I was just an introverted nobody that read geeky love stories. I was just a person in this small town of Rosewood, where everyone belonged to a specific clique, where everyone knew everyone else. There was no hiding my weirdness. I'd walk through a store, wearing my gothic clothing and a pink streak in my hair, and people would turn around to look at me and whisper about me. People were almost scared of me, like I was going to put some satanic curse on them. But then, she took me in."

Aria had a look on her face that read that she was re-living every moment through her words. Her eyebrows furrowed with every upsetting detail and the corners of her mouth turned upward when she spoke the happy details.

"…then one day she just went missing, the girl who brought us all together, defined us, brought us back into the world to be seen, just fell off the face of the earth. She had a life in front of her, Alison, she was going to graduate out of high school, get into a collage, probably bribe her way into UCLA, get married to some surfer hunk, and have kids! But somehow, it had been taken away from her. Then we split apart, my friends and I. Do you know Spencer Hastings and Hanna Marin and Emily Fields? They were my best friends along with Alison. But when she died, it was like our friendship had dissolved along with Alison's presence. Anyway, my parents took me to Iceland almost immediately after Alison's death because they believed that I couldn't do it."

Aria paused for a breath. She felt like her back was finally being released of all the pain that she had been carrying around for a year. Iceland was more of a burden than anything because she had been torn away from anyone that could relate to her pain. She was still buried deep in her thoughts but was interrupted when she felt Ezra's patient stare fall on her.

"…they thought I couldn't deal with the pain." She scoffed and looked out the window before continuing, "But let's be serious, it was more of a "whoops-I-wiped-my-feet-on-my student-and-now-my-daughter-knows-so-let's-move-before-my-daughter-tells-her-mom" escape route for my dad. But it's a story for later, I promise."

Aria was grateful that Ezra didn't ask a lot of questions. He didn't interrupt her once, asking annoying questions, or wondering why certain things happened the way they did. He just sat there in complete silence. But Aria knew that he was soaking in all the information, she knew that he wasn't judging her, she knew that she could enclose her trust in him.

"But here I am, back. New. Different. But the pain still here." She said, lightly pressing her palm into her chest.

"Noel, by the way, is a little shit. He's sexually harassing me, touching me where I would not appreciate being touched on a first date. I always wanted him, but now he's almost another means of hell. I'll leave out the details, I'll spare you. " Aria stressed the last phrase as if it was about to burn a hole in her tongue. "That's why I needed to sit next to you in the movie theater, that's why I made you spill coke all over me, THAT'S WHY!" She slammed the desk furiously, and then took in a deep breath. "Thank you."

"For what?" Ezra's eyebrows furrowed.

Aria's lips parted and she took in a deep breath as if she was going to answer, but instead she took a moment. She took a moment to frame her sentence perfectly, because she felt like this was the only time that she could truly tell him how she feels without rumors being spread by people who only overhear half the sentence or some no-neck who wants to ruin Aria can take this perfect moment and rip it by telling Noel or something like that. So she took that extra moment.

"For everything. I slammed a door onto you the day that we met. Then I kept following you around like a helpless puppy. Then you took the fall for my shameless following you around with Jackie. Not to mention the time you saved my ass from Noel Kahn, sexual harasser. And now, now you're sitting here on a Friday night listening to my sob story, what else do I have to be thankful for than you?" Aria was leaning over the table, her face inches away from Ezra's, she had a tendency to get closer to the person she was talking to when she was trying to make a point.

"I am so sorry. Okay, I'm sorry Ezra Fitz, for getting all up in your face. Literally." She leaned back into her chair, her face pale from her embarrassing actions.

Ezra just looked shocked and blinked hard twice as if in disbelief. "Aria. You need to break up with Noel."

Aria squinted in confusion and laughed mockingly, "You really think I'll break up with Noel?"

Ezra looked up at the ceiling as if he had just been punched in the gut. "Yes, Aria. I do believe that you should break up with Noel. Aria, this guy is a sexual harasser. You think I want you to be sexually harassed? Aria, one day I won't be there for you on a date and that time he'll go way farther than just a grope or an unwanted kiss. Gosh, Aria, I don't want you to get hurt. Because…"

"Because?"

Aria was impatient most of the time. But now she felt like seconds were minutes, minutes were hours, and hours were days. She was dreading the next words that Ezra would form because they would either confirm her thoughts that he truly did have mutual feelings for her or they would break her piece by piece leaving her with either no boyfriend at all or Noel. But honestly, Aria wanted him. Aria wanted his arm wrapped around her waist while his hand held a copy of a book she had given him. She wanted to have a secret relationship with him where they could run off to some obscure pond behind an abandoned house and bond over the quotes from their favorite book. She wanted to sit there and trace the deep lines on his palm for hours on hold. But she couldn't come to confess it.

"…because I think Noel's not worth it. I think you deserve someone who can hold your hand in classes, and people can say 'oh it makes sense together because they share the same interests, they read books together, love English class together, take their dates out to the same type of movi-"

"You're talking about yourself aren't you?" Aria said, grinning so bright that her cheek muscles strained.

Aria was ecstatic that Ezra was finally decided that he was the one for her, and she slid her fingers through his, their palms pressed against each other. Then slowly her eyelids closed themselves as Ezra leaned in. Then their lips crashed against each other's. This kiss was different than hers with Noel. This one had meaning, this one gave her a sense of trust, this one was from Ezra Fitz himself.

His lips were smooth and wanting, but they had a calm-but quick-careful nature to them. Aria's lips were more rough and bang-me-right-now. So the mix of the two had made a perfect, medium pace kiss, where they were more just mapping out the inside of the other's mouths slowly like a foreign, new land. But that didn't last for long.

Soon enough Aria pushed the desk aside and fell into his arms, her fingers entwined with his hair, and she wrapped her legs around his body as he picked her up and stood. Then she stood back down and laughed lovingly, "Now what ? What a cute name…. ."

**Author's Note: **

**Thank you so much for continuing to read Chosen! It means the world to me when you guys review and one special reviewer is the reason you have Chapter 5! **

Guest chapter 4 . Jun 14

This is one of my favorite stories ever, I really hope you continue and update

**Thank you so much and 7 reviews until the next chapter is uploaded! **

**PS Not gonna upload if it doesn't hit 7, sorry. **


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